The days are numbered for the British film industry...

Rating: 1/10 (1 November 2002)

I first saw this film at a test screening about 6 months ago. I decided not to post a review then, as I assumed that there was no way the film would be released as it was, considering the reaction of the test audience. However, it was.
The trailer actually makes the film appear to be quite promising. The audience is promised a tale of virus-ravaged UK, and one man's ordeal to survive. Upon seeing the film, the ordeal is suffered by the audience, who thankfully only have just short of two hours to get through.
The film does indeed begin with a virus being let loose upon the good citizens of Great Britain. After the brief set up, we join Jim (Murphy), a bicycle courier who was locked in a hospital room during the initial 28 days, waking from a coma. After the much publicised scenes of Jim staggering around a deserted London, he hooks up with love interest Selena, and a father and daughter. The quintuplet then embark upon a mostly tedious journey to Manchester, where Major West (Ecclestone) resides over a military base.
The problems with this film are numerous. The script is abysmal, and is not helped along by the performances of the leads. The dull lines are droned out by Murphy in a whinge-like monotone, whilst the usually excellent Christopher Ecclestone delivers his lines like he's in the school play. Thankfully, single-father Frank (Brendan Gleeson) is performed thoughtfully and with warmth. It is a great credit to Gleeson that he turns in such a performance when given such a disgraceful script.
The film is also not helped by the story. It is so ludicrous in places that Jim could have hopped on the London bus at the beginning of the film and driven it through many of the holes. For a capital that has been ravaged by a virus, and evacuated, there is remarkably little evidence left behind. Where are all the vehicles? Why have the shops not been looted?
**********SPOILER PARAGRAPH**************** To top the lot, we are expected to believe that an entire army unit has a) managed to do what apparently only four other people have achieved by staying alive, and b) have gone mad. Have they gone mad because of the virus? No. They've just gone mad. That's it. **********END OF SPOILER*******************
The film looks cheap. Not in a stylish, atmospheric way - it just looks cheap. To give credit where it's due, the zombie attack scenes are reasonably effective. They are powerful and violent enough to ramp up the tension, but this only contrasts to make the rest of the film feel even lamer.
Perhaps the must heinous crime this film commits is that it is excruciatingly boring. A number of people at the test screening actually got up and left. Considering test screenings are free, that goes some way towards explaining just how dull the film is.
I think I've made my point. Two minutes of genuinely scary zombie attacks do not constitute a sufficient payoff for sitting through what is, in summary, a very poor, dull, cheap-looking, boring film. Avoid like the Rage virus - if you go in to this film, it will feel like you're leaving it 28 days later.